Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of processor simulation systems, and, more particularly, to verifying processor-sparing functionality in a simulation system.
Computer system makers and computer processor makers continually strive to produce faster and more reliable computer systems. One way that computer systems are made faster and more reliable is to provide a multiprocessing computer system. A multiprocessing computer system is comprised of multiple processor cores. A multiprocessing computer system can be implemented using multiple single-core processors or one or more multi-core processors. The multiprocessing computer system is faster because the multiple processor cores can be made to execute tasks in parallel with one another. The multiprocessing computer system can be made more reliable because in the event of a failure, another processor core of the multiprocessing computer system can take over the functions formerly provided by the failed processor core and continue the programs that were executing on the failed processor core at the time of the failure. The capability to move programs from one processor core of a multiprocessing computer system to another processor core is referred to as processor-sparing.
While designing a computer system with a single processor core is complicated, designing a multiprocessing computer system that provides processor-sparing is even more complicated and susceptible to errors.